State University of Malang (UM) is a university with thousands of students in it. The distribution of UM students is almost evenly distributed throughout Indonesia, both those who live in big cities, small cities, and even remote villages, so you can say that educational equality has occurred. Education, which originally all students had to be on campus with face-to-face learning, must be done online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Online education brings a new unsolved problem, namely the difficult internet network in remote parts of the country. The uneven development of infrastructure, new incoming electricity, and difficult internet networks, make students have to find a network until they leave the village where they live by traveling and it is quite far and risky.

Rofiatul Azizah, one of the UM History Department students, said that in order to find an internet network for online education, he had to run to a port that had an internet network even though it was minimal with quite a long distance. The residence on Poteran Island, Sumenep, Madura, makes him have to stay all day at the port if there are full lecture hours. "Facing something must be relaxed, usually 1 hour or 30 minutes before the online lecture starts, you have to be at the port to prepare the internet network because only in the port and city center where the internet network is quite stable," he explained. Davia Faringgasari, a UM student from Nganjuk, also felt another thing, who spent her time in the fields to get a stable internet network. Many obstacles are felt in the fields, such as the absence of electricity to recharge the devices. Apart from that, obstacles such as erratic weather also made it difficult. “So far, when I was at home I looked for the internet network in the fields because if it was in the house, the signal was not there. So like it or not you have to be outside the house, which is located quite far. Moreover, in the fields there is no electricity network so you have to go back and forth to the house to charge it, ”he said. In addition, this student whose parents work as farmers, does not understand the condition of his son who is currently studying online, so he is still asked to help work in the fields while looking for an internet network.

The use of internet and electricity networks is mandatory for students today. Whatever the conditions are for lectures to take place, there must be a stable internet network. Many students have to leave home and go to campus with various lurking risks. The path taken by each student is different, some decide to be at home with problems with the internet and electricity networks. It is not uncommon for those who decide to return to Malang to get a network. With various decisions, these students have their respective risks.

Reporter: Agustin Rahayu Intan Berlianti